Work Text:
Katsuki Bakugou~
Bakugou leaned on the counter, flipping through some clothing magazine. He just wanted to go home. It wasn't often that someone came into the pet shop. Well, it was, but Bakugou didn't particularly care for the presence of anyone that walked in. Mostly, it was either couples looking for a new pet or toys for their new pet or an old lady getting more toys or food. Nobody was interesting. That's not like it was Bakugou's job to be entertained by the customers anyways. His only job was to ring up the shit they wanted or pull out pets from locked cages if they wanted them. A boring ass job Bakugou had gotten to pull himself through college.
Katsuki Bakugou. A 19-year-old college student with a job in a pet shop that barely gave him enough money to pay off his phone, car, and food bill. God, he needed someone to help him with that shit, and he refused to take a lending hand of money from his parents.
Bullshit. He was not going to go to them for help. So, as a result, Bakugou would have to suffer working in this dumbass pet shop for money. He was glad he got a full ride to UA--the best college around where most pros of anything had graduated from.
'Pros'? Yes, pros. The college gave out multiple courses you can take and included educating and training in just about every single thing. Name something. They had it.
Bakugou wanted to be a pro. Specifically at being a politician because Bakugou was amazing at arguing. A bureaucrat because Bakugou was amazing at ordering people the fuck around.
Bakugou was just hoping no one would remember that he worked in such a shitty place when he gets famous.
Now, all he was doing was looking through some catalog at some clothing Bakugou would probably be better at modeling. Not saying he wanted to be a model. Just saying he thought he was more attractive than them. Which, to be fair, he was. With his blessed, sharp jawline that could even look adorably chubby at times (literally, it was one or the other and both were beautiful) to his beautiful, spiky ash blonde hair, Bakugou was pretty fucking attractive. His frame at the waist was small, and he had some pretty masculine shoulders.
During High School, Bakugou had a lot of people confess to him, but he'd turn them all down. No one interested him in his High School. No one was remotely 'adorable', 'funny', 'cute', 'attractive', 'appealing', even fucking his 'friend', etc. All the things Bakugou had heard of for relationship material, no one was. No one made his heart flutter.
Then.
That was during High School.
That was until that fucking day coincidentally.
The chime from the door hitting into the bell sounded through the shop, but Bakugou didn't even care to look up at who walked in. He continued to flip through the magazine, elbow on the table with his palm pressed into his cheek. Of course, like normal, the dogs started barking in the shop, all the animals started making their stupid animals noises. Snakes stood up in the glass chambers, hamsters stopped running the wheels, some cats hissed, some cats ran to the cage bars, some just didn't fucking give a shit as cats do. About almost all the dogs beat on the cages with their paws, adding to the noise in the shop. Bakugou, being a heartless bastard, didn't care for the dogs at all or the animals in general. He kind of hated animals which was just ironic since he could be working at like a McDonalds or something.
It's not like all the dogs started barking. There was one exception. Bakugou's favorite. It never barked. Honestly, he kind of wanted to adopt the dog, but he could barely afford to feed himself. All he knew was that is was small and black. Whenever he'd feed the animals, that puppy always got the most.
Footsteps could be heard walking over to the dog cages, and still, Bakugou didn't care to look up from his magazine. That was until it had been thirty fucking minutes and no one had walked up to the cash register or walked out.
With a slight, quiet sigh, Bakugou finally looked up from his magazine. There stood on the other side of the shop, a redhead with some crazy-ass, spiky hair carefully looking at the dogs in the cages. He stuck a finger between the bars and tapped the puppy on the nose, rubbing his finger back and forth on it. The dark brown puppy nuzzled into it, licking his finger a few times. A smile was on the redhead's face. He moved onto to the next cage, repeating the same steps of caring for the puppy. This time it was Bakugou’s favorite, black puppy.
There was some stupid look on the redhead's face that Bakugou was just so fucking entertained by. His face went from happy to curious to confused to sad--just about every single fucking emotion. The man even seemed to mash together emotions that Bakugou didn't even think was possible to put together and make an expression with still an attractive look.
Holy shit, what did Bakugou just think?
Bakugou shook his head and looked back down at the magazine.
Thirty more fucking minutes passed and that redhead still hadn't let the shop.
The redhead had been there looking for a damn dog for a fucking hour.
Bakugou was going to say something, but one, Bakugou knew absolutely nothing about dog breeds since he was kind of neutral about pets. Two, Bakugou hated talking to people in most cases. If he was comfortable with the person, he had no problem with treating them as equals, but of course, they had to prove that they were equal with him. Though Bakugou had this pride over nine-fucking-thousand so no one could fucking level with him.
Bakugou probably didn't have one friend. More like acquaintances. It's not like he hated talking to people or was socially awkward. If you were acting like a spastic, Bakugou would be sure to call you out--swear words included. No, it was more like Bakugou hated listening to other people talk. He was just annoyed by them. It was their presence.
This redhead.
He gave off a different presence.
The way he carefully inspected each puppy and dog--he has had to have made at least two visits to each dog--with that one look on his face that changed emotions. Bakugou thought it was just-
Damnit, he's fucking cute.
God, Bakugou was gay as shit.
He knew it for a while too.
Why do you think he was looking at a catalog for male models?
Bakugou doesn't shop online.
Though, even though he knew he was starting to get this small crush on the redhead, Bakugou didn't want to embarrass himself with his low education on dogs and continued to flip through his magazine which he was almost done looking through.
Another thirty minutes.
That fucking redhead was still looking. Bakugou looked up at him a few times during the extra thirty minutes he was there. A few times, the redhead would start texting on his phone with both a confused, angry and sad expression on his face. Fucking adorable. The redhead would also stand there, staring at a puppy, scratching his head in confusion. Bakugou would start to chuckle a few times and would have to cover his mouth, looking back at the magazine to avoid making eye contact.
Bakugou seriously wanted to say something. If he didn't find the redhead overly adorable, he might have snapped at him an hour ago for being in the shop for so long, but the redhead was so cute, he couldn't pull himself to snap at him. He just wanted him to keep looking at the dogs with the expressions he had. They were literally priceless.
Thirty.
More.
Fucking.
Minutes.
Congratulations for the redhead, he finally walked up to the front counter after being in the shop for two fucking hours. Bakugou was still leaned on the counter, the heel of his palm dug into his cheek. He was leaned on one leg. Once he heard the footsteps approaching, Bakugou looked up with just his eyes, staring at the redhead, hiding his small, developing crush.
"You got it?" Bakugou asked with a slight curve at the corner of his lips.
"Yeah, I just-" the redhead sighed. "They're all amazing."
Bakugou chuckled, standing up and closing the magazine, "Sure." He picked up the magazine and threw it on the shelf underneath the counter, away from sight where he threw his phone and other shit that was his. "Did ya fucking pick one?"
"I'm stuck between the small, black lab and the baby Shiba, dude." The redhead said while running his fingers through his hair. This was seriously stressing him out. "Wanna break the tie for me?"
"Huh?"
"Pick which one I should get, man. Come on." With a sigh, Bakugou followed the redhead from around the corner. He stood in the front of the two cages sitting next to each other with the dogs inside of them, the redhead standing right next to him.
There it was. The puppy that was Bakugou's favorite. Bakugou pointed to the small, black-haired puppy.
"That one?" Bakugou nodded. He knew he would miss him--and he hated to admit that he would--but he wanted that puppy to have a good home. "Perfect. I'll take him."
Bakugou took the puppy from the cage, handing him to the redhead before heading over to the counter.
"Aren't you just a college kid? How the hell can you pay for this?" Bakugou mumbled under his breath while tapping the buttons on the register. Dogs were expensive.
The redhead shrugged, "Well, I live like a few miles away from my college, so I don't need to pay for a room. I just stayed with my mom and she pays for just about everything." Bakugou looked at the redhead who held out a card in one hand while the other held onto the puppy. He watched as the redhead smiled at the puppy and shut his eyes tight when the puppy began to lick his face. Bakugou took the card from the redhead, trying to stop himself from smiling, and swiped the card at the register.
As Bakugou typed in the sale, he thought about how upset he would be. The small puppy that he actually fucking liked was gonna be gone. He was gonna miss the only thing that he looked forward to.
"You have a number?" Bakugou quickly looked up at the redhead.
"Come again?"
"It's just- you look sad that this one's going." The redhead said while looking back down at the puppy. "If I have your number, then I can let you know when you can like drop by or something to visit him."
"I-" Bakugou stuttered. God, he was stuttering. "Yeah, hold up." He seemed kind of ecstatic about it. Giving this adorable redhead his number. Just for puppy reasons. He grabbed a notepad and quickly scribbled down his number, handing it to the redhead's extended hand.
"Can I get a name too? Don't just wanna call you 'pet store clerk'."
"Can I get your fucking name? Don't wanna call you 'guy who can't pick a fucking dog and takes two hours'."
The redhead chuckled which just made Bakugou's heart flutter, "'Eijirou Kirishima'."
"'Katsuki Bakugou'," Bakugou replied, sliding over the credit card back to the redhead--Kirishima. Kirishima smiled with that beautiful smile of his. He had some insanely sharp teeth. White as fuck too.
"Alright, Bakugou, see you when I'm free." Bakugou nodded and watched the redhead take his exit.
He was really fucking gay.
And he was really fucking excited for when the cute redhead would be free.